**R4D Deliveries Underway**

[Guest IanP]

A copied and pasted message from Bill Rambow, who is having a few problems getting to the forum right now... :-( Ian P.:-halo---Hi everyone. I am still at MAAM trying to help cope with the filling of all the pre-orders and regular orders, now that World War 2 Weekend is history. Shipping of the many hundreds of orders has begun, and I will continue to work with Brenda here at MAAM all day tomorrow doing the same, before turning it over to the regular volunteers. I am about to pull the orders that have come in since I traveled up here for the show a week ago tonight with mixed feelings. I look forward to another large number, but dread the work involved in formating and printing labels, hand-writing Customs decs - gift, of course , stuffing the envelopes, and attaching postage. Please bear with us, as it is a big task, but you should have your CD within a few days or a week if your pre-order is in our hands. Thanks to everyone who has ordered and I'll give a full report on the show when I get home. If you have not yet ordered, you better do so now as the backlog is simply getting longer. www.maam.org Cheers, Bill_________________Bill Rambow MAAM-SIM 'The R4D Team'

[Guest OneTinSoldier]

Cool. I just ordered mine. :)Cheers,Jim

[alastairmonk 0]

Yaay !!Look forward to seeing the CD plop through my letter box in due course !I see that the repaints have already started to appear ......Thanks,Alastair

[Guest crazyh]

I pre-ordered on June 5th. So far (11 June)my account has not been charged. I live in the USA so no big post problems. Was there any point in offering a pre-order? Waiting and waiting.

[Guest avolcek]

hehehe, June 5th. I ordered mine 30 May (now 12 June). Still nothing. Oh well, I guess, cause I don't want to knock the great folks over at MAAM. They undoubtably have their hands full right now.

[Guest crazyh]

OKAY This is very odd. I could not find the link on the MAAM site until 5 june to Pre-order.If it was up before that then I can see a delay.

[Guest crazyh]

Got order dates wrong. My confirmation E-mail is dated 5/29/04. I ordered a manual on CD from New Zealand on June 5th. I to work as a volunteer at a local museum.I am the smallarms armorer at the 45th Inf Div Museum in Oklahoma City. We to have a gift shop. I sure hope MAAMs is not run like ours. One little old lady volunteer (Bless her heart)who gets in 1 or 2 days a week to fill mail and internet orders. I have a full time job so my work at the museum can get behind. It is very satisfying to turn a peice of rust and turn it into a funstional piece of history.The big problem is just the anticipation of getting to fly the ALL NEW R4D/DC-3!!!!!!!!. Color me too eager.

[rambow 0]

Hi guysFirst of all, the idea of the pre-order was to give people who have been waiting for the R4D a chance to get on the list for first deliveries. And the first deliveries are already on the way, I promise you. In retrospect, we never should have promised delivery until a week or more after the close of World War II Weekend. The clean up tasks after the huge show, which had record crowds, by the way, have taken volunteers away from the order-filling and shipping process. I stayed at the museum myself until Thursday morning helping the office staff get things rolling.We are, however, an all-volunteer operation and although the lady in our office is neither little or old, Brenda must run each credit card number taken off our secure server through the keypad by hand. It's a time-consuming process. We do not charge your card until the order is filled, so if your CC statement shows a charge, your CD is in the mailer, labelled, and on the way.Another little surprise that has held up the overseas orders a few days was that when we took them to the post office we were informed that the Customs Declaration form which we had filled out by hand for each one was obsolete as of June 5. They gave us a small batch and told us we had to order the new ones on the web, fill them all out again, and replace the old ones. There was no announcement of this, so it was quite beyond our control.I'm heading back up to Reading tomorrow and will stay until we have caught up with the backlog. I hope to see on this forum that you are all starting to receive your CDs the next time I check in here.For those who are being patient, thanks. We are trying as hard as we can under the circumstances to get them in your hands ASAP.Bill Rambow MAAM-SIM - Rambow, Visser, Banting, Young, Womack, and Sodjahttp://www.fssupport.com/maam_sim/maamsim_logo.gif

[alastairmonk 0]

Hi Bill,No problem. When mine arrives I'll let everyone know that the orders have made it across The Pond.Alastair

[Guest crazyh]

Sorry! I forgot about what a job cleaning up after a event can be. We have the 45th Inf Division reunion in town each year and it is a load of work. We are all volunteers as well except for the curator. So when my R4D gets here it gets here. One of these days I will make it up to your museum and If I run into you then you can chew me out for my lack of patience...

[Guest Hawk19]

"All good things come to those that wait" I understand how much work goes into shows like you just had. It's not like I have no other planes to fly while I'm waiting. :) This is not to say that I'm not chomping at the bit to receive my CD, but it's not the end of the world. Keep up the fantastic work that you do.Hawk

[Guest Edd1]

Has anyone recievewd a CD? My card was billed June 9th and I live about 450 miles from Reading. I think tomorrow (16th) will be the day.Hope you have yours soon.Ed W

[Guest Charolastra]

Hi !Whish my Crad would be billed soon... Have ordered on June 5th. Is this still normal, due to your heavy Workload ?Thank you !Tobias.

[rambow 0]

Hi Tobias,Well, there isn't anything NORMAL about this huge backlog. ;-) The unprecedented demand is of course a good thing for MAAM and not so good for you, but I am staying on at MAAM through the next couple of days and we are working through the orders as fast as Brenda's flying fingers work on the CC machine. At close down last night, around 2000, we had gotten halfway through the orders and expect to get through the rest before C.O.B. on Thursday. I was in the office at 0630 this morning, large coffee beside me, ready to stuff mailers as Brenda inputs the charges.There are two huge boxes of mailers to be taken to the P.O. this morning, and another big stack awaiting our shipment of Customs Declarations. But we are pro-active about that - we have sent volunteers to all the surrounding P.O. branches to raid their small supplies of the forms like a gang of bank robbers, and pity anyone else hoping to mail stuff overseas! We have a two-inch stack coming in this morning with one of our raiders and that should see us through the crunch.Now, if you want to feel sorry for someone else, think of poor Brenda. When she gets through with this temporary duty in the office, and the engine is purchased for the R4D, she's the one who has to install it! In normal times, Brenda is MAAM's A&P mechanic. She also owns the beautiful Stearman that we sell rides on, BTW.:-)Bill RambowMAAM-SIM - Rambow, Visser, Banting, Young, Womack, and Sodjahttp://www.fssupport.com/maam_sim/maamsim_logo.gif

[alastairmonk 0]

Hi Bill,Great news about all of the backlog - is purchasing the new engine something that will now happen sooner rather than later ?Perhaps in the fullness of time someone on the Team could create a Virtual Brenda in appreciation of all her hard work !Thanks Brenda !Alastair